From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 3:05 AM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort: parshas Vayeishev, 5765


                                                    

                                            Sorry, I Have to Run

                    By Rabbi Joshua (hastily known as The Hoffer) Hoffman


Yosef is brought down to Egypt and purchased by Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh. Potiphar places Yosef in charge of his household, leaving all that he has in his custody. While serving as the overseer, his master's wife tries to entice him on a constant basis, but he does not succumb to her charms. Finally, on a day when no one else is at home, she grabs his clothing and says, "Lie with me!" Yosef, however, resists her advances, as the Torah tells us, "And he left his garment in her hand, and he fled, and went outside" (Bereishis 39:12). The midrash tells us that as a reward for running from Potiphar's wife, the Sea of Reeds fled before the nation of Israel as they left Egypt, leaving a dry path before them by which to escape the pursuing Egyptians. This is the meaning of the verse in Tehillim (114:3) that the 'sea saw and fled." The midrash explains that the sea fled from in front of the coffin which contained the bones of Yosef, carried by Moshe as the nation departed Egypt.


Rabbi Ya'akov Kaminetsky, in his Emes L'Ya'akov, explains why Yosef's merit was so great. He says that by leaving his garment behind as he fled hurriedly from the clutches of his master's wife, Yosef knew that he was thereby enabling her to accuse him of violating her. However, he did not stop to retrieve it, but rather immediately fled the scene to avoid her temptations. In effect, his reaction to the crisis he faced was to place higher value on his spiritual purity than on his physical survival. As an incidental sidelight, although Rabbi Kaminetsky does not mention this, it is interesting to note that it was actually the fact that Yosef left his garment behind that saved his life. Targum Yonasan ben Uziel says - apparently citing a midrashic tradition - that Potiphar's wife doused egg white on the garment, to give the impression that Yosef actually had relations with her. However, Poitphar had a test made on the garment, and discovered that it was, in fact, an egg stain on it, and not what his wife claimed was there. If Potiphar really believed his wife, he would have put Yosef to death. Thus, the very act by which Yosef endangered himself served to save him. In any case, Rabbi Kaminetsky goes on to say that at the Sea of Reeds, the charge arose - as brought in the midrash - that both the Egyptians and the Israelites had worshipped idols. Therefore, why should one nation be saved and the other drowned? In answer to this charge, the example of Yosef was brought to show the unique nature of the nation which produced him and therefore deserved to be rescued.


While Rabbi Kaminetsky's explanation certainly helps us understand the greatness of Yosef's actions, it still leaves us with a question. If the reason that the sea refused, initially, to split for the Israelites was, according to the midrash, because the Israelites had worshipped idols, just as the Egyptians had, then how did Yosef's actions relate to that specific argument. Moreover, wouldn't it have been more apropos to argue that the Israelites themselves had finally rejected the idol worship of the Egyptians when they brought the Pesach sacrifice, in response to God's command, from lambs, which were the idols of the Egyptians? Why, then was there even a need to resort to Yosef's merit in order to counter the argument posed at the Sea of Reeds? I believe that an explanation of Yosef's behavior given by Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, albeit in a different context, to prove a different point, can help us answer these questions.


Rav Soloveitchik said, as brought in the work BeShem Omram - a collection of lectures that he gave that were later transcribed by students - that Yosef did not stop to take his garment back from Potiphar's wife, out of a sense of gratitude to her. Rav Soloveitchik, in that lecture, did not indicate what he was grateful to her for. The person who transcribed that lecture, Rabbi Noach Goldstein, suggested that Rav Soloveitchik was referring to the midrash, cited by Rashi, that Potiphar's wife had good intentions in trying to seduce Yosef, because she saw through her astrology that either her daughter or herself would have a son through Yosef. However, I believe it is much simpler to explain that Yosef had gratitude towards her simply because she was his master's wife, and, therefore, in a sense, his employer. Even though she misused the terms of employment to try to seduce him, he still felt a sense of gratitude. Yosef  felt a sense of gratitude to Potiphar's wife and displayed it by allowing her to keep his garment, and not taking it back forcibly. By explaining the greatness of Yosef's actions in this way, we can answer the questions we raised on the midrash we began with.


We have noted many times in the past, in our messages, that the fundamental reason behind Pharaoh's idol worship was a lack of a sense of gratitude. The Torah tells us, in parshas Shemos (1:8), that after Yosef and his generation died, a new king arose who did not know Yosef. The failure of Pharaoh to recognize all of the good that Yosef had done for Egypt, saving it from starvation during the years of famine, bespoke a lack of a sense of gratitude. The Midrash HaGadol in parshas Shemos says that the same Pharaoh who did not know Yosef later told Moshe and Aharon, "Who is God that I should hearken to him?' (Shemos 5:2). A lack of a sense of gratitude to people can lead to denial of God. A person who worships idols is really projecting forces within himself onto the world at large, and, in effect, is worshiping himself, because he does not want to acknowledge any sense of indebtedness to anyone else. Yosef, on the other hand, had a sense of gratitude so intense that was grateful to his master's wife for being his employer even in the midst of her attempt to bring him to spiritual ruin. This sense of gratitude struck at the root of idol worship, and thus stood as a defense for Yosef's nation when they stood at the Sea of Reeds, pursued by the Egyptians. A nation that could produce someone with such a heightened sense of gratitude, and looked to him as a role model, was fundamentally in opposition to the entire mind-set that generates idol worship. For this reason, the Sea of Reeds agreed to split before that nation.



Please address all correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address - JoshHoff @ AOL.com.

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